Recreational vehicles such as snowmobiles, motorcycles, personal watercraft (PWCs), boats, and all terrain vehicles (ATVs) often have straddle-type seats. The performance of such vehicles often depends, in part, on minimizing their weight. To decrease the weight of these recreational vehicles, designers have developed straddle-type seats that comprise a base frame, a lightweight compressible foam such as polyurethane supported by the base frame, and a fabric cover made of a water-proof material such as nylon, vinyl, or leather that covers the foam to discourage the foam from soaking up water. The size and shape of such seats have been somewhat dictated on how they are attached to the vehicle. Conventional seats have been attached to several vehicle components to ensure they are not inadvertently released.
Snowmobiles, motorcycles, PWCs, boats, and ATVs are operated in areas that present various environmental conditions involving water, snow, dirt, dust and other fine particulate debris. Normal operation of such straddle-seat vehicles kicks up such material, causing the material to deposit on the straddle-seat and overtime become absorbed by the seat causing the seat to become heavy. Because conventional straddle-type seats are fixed to the vehicle with fasteners, considerable effort and time is needed to remove them.
Because the riders of these vehicles prefer a light, dry seat (or at least a seat that can be as dry as possible), there is an interest to developed and design a seat that is light weight and removes quickly from the vehicle. Such a seat, however, is not known in the prior art.